I Wed the Ruthless Alpha, and Now His Wolf Kneels to Me novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Juhannus
Marja's POV
The Juhannus fire burned all that second night, and the pack came back to it in the dusk that never turned to dark.
Mummu's sauna court stood on one side, and the Cornish families stood on the other.
Solange's French stood in between, and nobody had planned it that way.
Petroc crossed the grass to me in his work coat with his hat in his hands.
He did not carry a lamp.
He stopped in front of me and went down on one knee in the trampled grass.
"I'm asking you where people can hear it," he said. "There's no flame and no law, and you can say no. I'd still be at your door in the morning with the plow. Marry me, Marja Hautala."
The flames cracked behind him.
I looked past his bowed head at my grandmother.
Mummu stood with her gauzed hand held against her chest and her chin up, and she nodded once.
"Yes," I said.
Toivo whooped so loudly that a Cornish baby began to cry, and then everyone was laughing.
Mummu broke a braided loaf of pulla in two over our joined hands and gave each of us a piece.
I tasted cardamom and sugar and smoke, and Petroc ate his with tears running down his face and did not wipe them.
We walked home up the hill alone, with his arm around my shoulders.
On the porch of the Captain's house, he took the old brass lamp from under his coat.
It was cold and dented, with a hooked spout.
He hung it on the hook by the door.
I struck a kitchen match on the rail and lit the wick.
The flame stood up small and yellow.
It was a lantern, and I knew it, and it burned on the porch for anyone coming up the hill.
"Stop," I said, to see.
He took another step, caught me around the waist and kissed me against the door.
"Mine to decide," Petroc said into my mouth.
I laughed, and I opened the door.
The lake sauna was already hot.
I had lit it at four, because Mummu always said the first sauna of a marriage belongs to the wife.
I stood in the red glow of the stove door with the towel gone.
He sat on the upper bench with his hands on his knees.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted you to look at me like that," I said.
"I have some idea."
I threw water on the stones, and the steam rolled over us.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of I Wed the Ruthless Alpha, and Now His Wolf Kneels to Me are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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